BLACKSBURG, Va. – Preventing tragedies in school zones — that’s why Blue Line Solutions was created.
“Mark’s passion for that came when he witnessed a small child killed in a car accident,” said Gena Sullivan, a spokesperson for Blue Lines Solutions.
Blue Line Solutions is a speed enforcement company that partners with local law enforcement to curb school zone speeders.
“We’re active in six states right now and we have 11 agencies in Virginia that are working with us currently,” Sullivan said.
She said they have seen results in every state they work in.
“We’re usually able to see an average of a 94% reduction in speeding vehicles,” said Sullivan. “One agency that is close to where I live has a 97.5% reduction. They had over 9,000 speeders when they began, and they have under 300 right now.”
She said the company has to follow all the same rules law enforcement has to follow.
“It is just like working for an agency and that’s the way we do it,” said Sullivan. “Obviously that’s the way you have to do it when you are looking at people’s tags and people’s registrations.”
When the town proposed this idea, the mayor did have some concerns.
“We need to know more on how long they hold [data] and who might have access to it,” said Leslie Hager-Smith, mayor of Blacksburg.
Sullivan said the picture taken is of the license plate on the back of the vehicle only.
The photo and data are then stored locally in the United States.
Sullivan said security measures are put in place to keep the data from falling into the wrong hands.
“You have to have an access control card to get in there,” said Sullivan. “All of them have to be fingerprinted, go through background checks — it’s pretty extensive.”
Sullivan said if the town does go forward, they will work directly with law enforcement to keep citizens informed on when to expect the change.